Tag Archives: Keywords: Cultural bias

The present study was undertaken to investigate potential sources of response bias in empirical research involving older ethnic minorities and to identify prudent strategies to reduce those biases, using Korean American elderly (KAE) as an example. in studies of older ethnic minorities. The recognized response biases highlight the need for re-evaluation of current measurement practices, which are based on traditional recommendations that response anchors should be mixed or that the original wording of devices should be rigidly followed. Specifically, systematic guidelines for accommodating cultural and contextual backgrounds into instrument design are warranted. Keywords: Cultural bias, Ethnic minority elderly, Response bias Introduction Despite increases in research on older ethnic minorities, there has been relatively little methodological investigation of sources of measurement error or discussion of ways to deal with measurement error in research on such population groups (Okazaki and Sue 1995). One source of measurement error in survey research is response bias, which can result in inaccurate assessments and false conclusions. This is especially important for researchers who use translated instruments in studies of ethnic minority populations or in cross-cultural research. Over the years, generations of specialists have made significant contributions to psychometrics and survey methodology, providing contemporary researchers with well-validated traditional survey instruments that follow classical instrumentation guidelines (Nunnally 1970). One such guideline recommends the intermittent switching of response anchors (e.g., from positive to negative and vice versa) to avoid measurement errors due to potentially mechanical responses (Dillman 2000). Yet although the influence of question wording and format on the responses to questionnaire items for the general population has been discussed in survey research (Benson and Hocevar 1985; Locker, Jokovic, and Allison 2007; Schwarz 1999), the pros and cons of switching anchors midstream within survey instruments are not well discussed in the literature, and we do not know how this practice may influence the results obtained with data from ethnic minority populations or in cross-cultural HNPCC2 groups. Another gap in the science of measurement as it is used in cross-cultural research is related to a lack of discussion about practical guidelines concerning the assessment and handling of cultural bias in survey items. There are many recommended and well-accepted methods for the translation of instruments and the achievement of conceptual equivalence between original instruments and their translated versions, such as back-translation (Brislin 1970; Berkanovic 1980) or committee review (Guillemin, Bombardier, and Beaton 1993). Back-translation is the most commonly recommended method for obtaining the cultural equivalency of instruments in cross-cultural studies. Committee review is also recommended in order to obtain semantic, idiomatic, and conceptual 891494-64-7 manufacture equivalence in translation. But these methods are applied before surveys are actually administered, and researchers do not commonly assess potential cultural bias, response bias, or their magnitudes after the survey data have been collected. Given the critical role of psychometrically sound instruments in psychological and behavioral research, further methodological investigation and discussion are needed; both may entail challenges to some of the traditional practices used in survey research on ethnic minority populations. In this study, we investigate whether sources of response bias might be linked to cultural or contextual response styles or response formats, and we 891494-64-7 manufacture examine strategies to reduce such errors. To do so, we use multiple datasets of Korean American Elderly (KAE) as our example. Korean Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic minorities in the United States, constituting the fifth largest Asian American subgroup (U.S. Census Bureau 2012). To date, research 891494-64-7 manufacture focusing on measurement error has been limited, especially for studies of ethnic minorities. The present study represents an attempt to further such research. Our investigation focuses on two survey instruments: Pearlins Mastery Scale (Pearlin and Schooler 1978) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff 1977). These instruments, designed to measure social competence and mental health, have been used in many studies of ethnic minorities, and they have been translated for use with Korean Americans (Jang et al. 2005a; Jang, Roh, and Chiriboga 2014; Kim et al. 2005). However, researchers have reported lower internal consistency for these scales when examining Korean American populations as opposed to other populations whose primary 891494-64-7 manufacture language is English (Jang et al. 2005b). It should be noted that such lower internal consistencies were not found for the CES-D in one study of younger Korean Americans, presumably because they were more acculturated (Kim, Landis, and Cain 2013). In the present study, therefore, we examine response bias in three KAE 891494-64-7 manufacture cohorts on two commonly used scales. Methods Data Sources This.